Struggling Sunderland 'close to turning a corner,' says Mike Dodds

Interim head coach Mike Dodds says he does not want to 'spin positives' - but he also says there were some despite a fourth successive defeat.

Mike Dodds says he sees signs that Sunderland are ‘close to turning a corner’ despite slumping to a fourth successive defeat in the Championship.

The Black Cats lost 1-0 at Norwich to leave any lingering hopes of a promotion push hanging by a thread.

Once again, it was the attacking play that let Sunderland down, but Dodds insists he is seeing enough to give fans hope of an imminent upturn in results.

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"I'm not going to sit here and spin positives because we've lost the game and that's the most important bit, but the pleasing bit for me was that we got into the right areas,” Dodds said.

"I thought we got into the final third really well and I thought the players executed what we asked of them really well, but we've got better quality in the final third than what we showed today.

"The next stage of that is putting the ball in the back of the net, and that hasn't been easy for us all season if we're completely honest.

“I think today, you've got give Norwich credit because they defended their box well but at the moment I think we're just a bit erratic, a little bit tense maybe in those areas.

“But I've got full faith in the players and the way they work, their desire to improve gives me a lot of faith that we're close to turning a corner."

Mike Dodds says Sunderland 'have not given up' on play-offs race